In an impassioned speech about faith and race, the Democrat at first expressed support for Wright, saying that "I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother."

But six weeks later during a speech at the National Press Club, Wright offered eyebrow-raising opinions about the U.S. government, praised Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and hinted that Obama was distancing himself from the pastor for political expediency.

Wright doesn't matter any more, unless Obama loses his mind and brings him to Washington. The next time we're called upon to judge Obama's character he'll have an actual record for us to go by, and we won't have to resort to proxies.

They're both right. They were critical to the R and professional-conservative strategies.

Fear.

P.S.I somewhat recall Wright saying something like this before he went underground.

P.P.S.Is Beck insane? Today he was rolling out some conspiracy theory that explained our current circumstances as the final stages of a plan Stalin and other patient communists hatched long ago. Supposedly these schemers planned to get our government to take over the economy in increments.

My favorite aspect of this sort of professional-conservative communism fear mongering is that there can be no mention of the fact that the growth of government is actually pushed by capitalists. Companies have long ago realized that the government is a money pit ripe for the the picking.

But, the professional conservatives can't acknowledge that corporations are living off the government for profits. It should be obvious that the corporations have a real financial motivation for their lobbying and contracting with the government.

But, the professional conservatives can't speak ill of corporations so they must pin the blame on liberals who are motivated by hate of America, or vain power grabs, or some other psychological motivation. But, the problem couldn't possibly be that corporations are working the government for maximum profitability, as is their fiduciary requirement, i.e. their reason for existing.

I don't see Emanuel doing anything but advancing the far left lib agenda. To spin his selection as some sort of Maginot Line against the Kos Kossacks is a fantasy. That is just the MSM trying to disperse the meme that Obama's White House is not far left liberal.

Let's wait and see whether Obama's brain or his heart rules his own admministration.

Doyle, good one, right on target. Before God punished America for Homosexuality he would punish us for all the Christians that look at Internet porn. There is a branch of Christianity that likes to put a hierarchy around sin, and the bad ones are always the ones those people don't do so much.

The thing that bothers me is the idea that it's somehow unusual for a religious figure to make criticisms of the state. It's kind of a long tradition, and calling it "hate speech" is just achingly stupid.

Wright's conspiracy theories and soft spot for Farrakhan are obviously unfortunate, but he's hardly the demonic figure the wingnuts have been trying so hard to portray him as.

Of course the Ds ran on fear. Fear of the economy falling apart. Issue based fear. [And, one part of the R party fear machine was substantive, i.e. the fear of BHO being new on the national and international stage.]

But, the way Rs rely on fear instead of relevant issues is the problem. Did y'all really think you should be elected because BHO's pastor had said a few nutty things when BHO wasn't in church. And, should a couple weeks of the R campaign strategy be dedicated to noting that BHO (and many others including Rs) crossed paths on boards and panels with a neighborhood professor who was a terrorist when BHO was seven.

Many of you strongly feel that these are reasons McCain should have been elected. That's precisely your problem. But, you can't fathom it, even though it's right in front of you. Your governing philosophy is bankrupt. You don't argue policy. You use personal, ancillary attacks to create fear.

Even when Rs try to talk policy you need to use hyperbole because your concepts don't stand on their own. Folks weren't buying trickled down, so rather than offer something other than trickled down y'all stuck with trickled down but called going back to WJC tax rates socialism.

What would y'all have run on if you didn't have vitriol? That's what y'all should be working on. Go through thought experiments where you pretend that you can't rely on fear mongering and vitriol. What kind of policies could you develop that would be good for the country and win voters if you could not rely on the crutch of personality based fear mongering and vitriol?

I see two problems. One, I don't think the R party powerful want anything but trickle down. Two, the professional-conservatives that many of you follow are in the personality based fear mongering and vitriol business.

In both situations the folks running your party have a direct financial interest in not changing.

doyle: "Wright's conspiracy theories and soft spot for Farrakhan are obviously unfortunate, but he's hardly the demonic figure the wingnuts have been trying so hard to portray him as."

"Unfortunate"?

If McCain had chosen to make a right-wing analog of Wright his mentor and spiritual adviser for 23 years, it would be so fucking "unfortunate" that McCain would not be in office of any sort right now, he would rightfully be a pariah, and his Senate seat would have been won by a democrat.

Doyle believes that the religious right is analogous to Wright and his theology based upon Dr. Cone's Black Liberation Theology.

Right.

Here are but some of the ideas and concepts which formed the basic theology of Obama's church:

"The time has come for white America to be silent and listen to black people. . . . All white men are responsible for white oppression. . . . Theologically, Malcolm X was not far wrong when he called the white man 'the devil."

And:

"White supremacy is so clever and evasive that we can hardly name it. It claims not to exist, even though black people are dying daily from its poison"

And, least we forget:

"Black theology refuses to accept a God who is not identified totally with the goals of the black community. If God is not for us and against white people, then he is a murderer, and we had better kill him. ... Black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy."

"Cone said blacks shouldn't limit their hope to what the Republican and Democratic parties stand for. Then he posited a thought that voters are unlikely to hear from Obama:

"Together, black religion and Marxist philosophy may show us the way to build a completely new society. ...

Asked about that, Cone said: "I want to change society. I was searching for my way forward. I want a society in which people have the distribution of wealth, but I don't know how quite to do that institutionally."

Yes Black Liberation Theology is just what the country needs to heal the racial rifts... My god, how insane could people be to overlook this. Also Althouse, you are as guilty as the rest of them for voting in this creep. You won't get away with "cruel neutrality" games with me.

"For god's sake I wish Althouse would ban/delete Doyle once and for all. He's back to posting like it's his own blog. I mean "doyling" like it's his own blog."

Granted, I've only been posting here recently, although I've been following this blog for a long time - but this is the kind of post that gets me flummoxed.

I get the fact that trolls are a problem, and I certainly have become more frustrated with the left, but why should someone expressing an opinion in a non-disrespectful way be banned? How is that any different than the criticism you level at the far left?

I love this site, and I think the people that make comments here are incredibly witty and clever, but sometimes I think people get so invested in their own side that they see they're guilty of the same things that they criticize in others.

I know I'm stating the obvious. But I do think what makes this blog so interesting is that you get to hear from both sides. Who wants to come to a place that's an echo chamber for any one side.

Yeah, I respect and tolerate people who question authority and the government just fine. But I can't stand bigots and racists like Jeremiah Wright. That he pretends to be a pastor and a Christian is even more offensive to me.

I forgot to mention that Obama's poor judgment wrt Wright when combined with his voting "present" so often is indicative of a man who is very indecisive and needs someone strong to tell him what to do.

And according to the Chicago Tribune in 2007: "The senator does check with his pastor before making any bold political moves."

This evening James Dobson's Focus on the Family Action sent out a fundraising email to members that likened the victories of Barack Obama and congressional Democrats in Tuesday's election to the Nazi bombing of England during World War II. The author of this vile letter is Tom Minnery, Senior Vice President of Focus on the Family Action.

"Anubody here who whines about Wrights and any of what they refer to as "hate he spews" must not have been listening to John McCain, Sarah Palin and their minions over the past 6 months."

You know, I'm not sure I ever buy the rhetorical device of absolving someone of responsibility by saying someone else did it, too.

I'm just not sure how you can explain away the fact that Obama sat in that church for all those years, and never publicly disavowed any of Wright's statements.

In fact, he said that he didn't hear them. Which I find pretty remarkable. Don't you think that this is intellectually dishonest? Wouldn't you say that this, and the fact that Obama said Wright was his mentor, tells us something about his character?

15 straight months of increased unemployment, long term unemployment at a 25 year high, banks going belly up on a daily basis, GM damn near bankrupt...and the same ol' pack of wingnuts here are still crying about Wright.

"Are you Wright attackers going to be at this stuff for the next four years?"

To be clear for those like you who refuse to address the real issue, it is not about Wright - it is about Obama and his judgment vis-a-vis Wright.

And please explain why some of Obama's biggest life decisions (choice of mentor, choice of church to attend and support, location of his marriage, etc.) doesn't tell us anything at all about the man and according to you everything we need to know about him came from his campaign web site, a couple of speeches and two books.

Michael, quick question...what church is Dobson pastor of? Which seminary did he graduate from? 'Cause in my "reality-based" world, James Dobson, refers to himself as "Dr.",(some honorary degrees), not "Rev."

Hey, if Wright is relevant to nothing, then there won't be any power behind bringing him up in the future.

If he is a testament to a truly dubious worldview and poor decision-making process--though the latter must be challenged at this point, since his association with Wright was an effective rung on the ladder--then there will be plenty of other things BHO does to back this up.

You know, kind of like saying, "OMG! George HW Bush was a big tax-and-war guy! And W 'hangs out' with him!" Kind of pointless after NCLB, Part D and Afghanistan and Iraq.

Well obviously not everything Jeremiah Wright says is offensive. SOME of what he has said is pretty offensive, but I think most grownups wouldn't have a big hissyfit about it.

He didn't *notice*.

That isn't something I made up... it's what Obama himself said. He went to that church for 20 years and he didn't find anything offensive at all because he *never heard it.*

I *noticed* what my pastor said after 9-11. On at least two occasions I've approached ministers after the service to tell them they were wrong. I recall what they'd said and what they were wrong about and what I said to them to correct them. When I disagree, but not to the point where it's necessary to speak up, I still remember what I disagreed with. I could explain how my views differed from any pastor I had for more than just a couple of years, anyone I had time to *know*.

You know, I continue to believe that Wright got a bad shake. He said some dumb things and is an odd duck.

But the hate generated at him is based on a grand total of about 2-10 seconds of video replayed thousands of times.

What if they had played, for that legendary balance, scenes of Rev Wright preaching love and forgiveness? (I think even Dobson preaches that from time to time).

But now I'm harder pressed to say there's a lot of racism in America that whites know nothing about and blacks, too much. In the past tense, certainly. But racism took it to the chin this week and we came out looking grand.

(And, if you guys want to keep obsessing on Wright for a few years, maybe that's not such a bad thing).

Alpha, I absolutely agree with you that Wright probably said a lot of good things in church, and that we are focusing on these negative ones.

But Obama's excuse wasn't that - it was that he said he wasn't aware Wright had said these things. Kind of like Clinton saying he didn't inhale. (And before you assume otherwise, I voted for Clinton, and I was a Hillary supporter although I have lots of reservations about her, too.)

It just seems like Obama supporters make such excuses for every negative thing about him, instead of just saying, "Yeah, that's a character flaw, but I like him anyway.".